Dental Hygienist Describes ‘Smiles for Hope’ to North Haven Rotary Club

At a breakfast meeting of the North Haven Rotary Club in early September, Peggy Dercole, a guest of a former club president, Nick Casella, stated that she has been a dental hygienist for over 28 years and is presently working for the Levy Dental Group in New Haven. However, over the span of her career, she has partnered with many community groups in order to provide free dental care to those in need.

The guest speaker told her audience that in 2008 she was fortunate enough to go on a mission trip to the Dominican Republic to help the people there who were in need of proper dental care. The lack of electricity prevented the group from working past sunset even though there were plenty of people who needed to be seen.

Comprised of hygienists and dentists, her group of volunteers attends to patients in one village and then travels to another the next day to assist people. Frequently, there are hundreds of people seeking care, but often patients cannot be served due to the shortage of time and personnel.

Distributing a packet of photographs documenting her cause which is known as Smiles for Hope, Ms. Dercole shared stories of people who were so sick from the lack of proper dental care that they were unable to eat or work, with some tragically dying from oral infections. Each year she returns to the Dominican Republic or to Haiti to provide dental care to those in need. 

Although not a dentist, she said that she often must extract teeth and perform surgery because of the severe lack of services. Devoted to serving these people, she plans to keep visiting the same areas until a healthy regimen is established.

Because of the desperate conditions of their clients, the group seeks funding sources to provide for the needed equipment and supplies to continue their worthwhile efforts. Having also established a Montessori program to provide basic education for the children, they appeal to service groups like the Rotary club to provide some assistance.

In closing, she indicated that the University of New Haven has recently committed to a partnership through their new dental hygienist program. Nick Casella assured his guest that the club’s board of directors would seriously consider providing the requested support. 

Text & photo courtesy of David Marchesseault & George Guertin, Rotary Publicity Committee